Starry-eyed U.N. chief says we need to limit climate change to 2.7F of warming, not 3.6F

This week in the annals of wishful thinking, the executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change declared that the world's nations — you know, the ones with the record carbon emissions last year — should commit themselves to warming of no more than 2.7 degrees F, not the previously agreed-upon 3.6 degrees F. The move was apparently inspired by a bunch of island nations that are basically toast, thanks to sea-level rise.

Meanwhile, scientists are saying that we've already blown our chance at meeting the previous 3.6 degrees F warming target, and are busy hosting conferences at Oxford with titles like "4 Degrees and Beyond." Indeed, if recent record carbon emissions continue, we're almost certainly on course for that much warming.

In 2009, the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research said that "Political reality must be grounded in physical reality or it's completely useless."